dissent

ANKARA, March 3 – Turkish prosecutors have opened nearly 2,000 cases against people for insulting Tayyip Erdogan since he became Turkey’s president 18 months ago, the justice minister said on Wednesday. Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey punishable by up to four years in jail, but the law has previously been invoked only rarely.

CAIRO, Feb 21 – An Egyptian court has sentenced an author to two years in jail for public indecency after excerpts of his sexually explicit novel were published in a literary newspaper. A chapter from Ahmed Naji’s novel Istikhdam Al Hayat, or Using Life, was serialized in a state-owned literary newspaper and a case was